OPTICAL FIBRE NETWORK WITH SOUTH ASIAN STATES Kathmandu, 16 May: The Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC) plans to select an international consultant by October to establish an optical fibre link with India, Bangladesh and Bhutan. The proposed fibre link has been seen as the best way to avoid dependency on satellite connections and reduce charges for voice and data Services, The Kathmandu Post reports. The government is building the fibre link as part of the South Asian Sub-Regional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) Information Highway Project supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Other major components of the project include establishing 30 community e-centres and a research and training centre for development of ICT in the country. The ADB has provided US$ 9 million for the information highway project. So far, 20 international firms have bought bid documents for the information highway project, according to the MoIC. “We are aiming at awarding the contract by October,” said Shailaja Regmi, project manager of the information highway. She added that it would take around three to five months for the bids to be evaluated. The last date for submitting bids is May 31. After the optical fibre link is installed, it will provide an alternate backbone route in Nepal for establishing cross-border connectivity through Cable Landing Station (CLS) at Rani, Biratnagar by connecting to the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited’s (BSNL) network in Jogbani, India and another CLS at Birgunj connected to Raxaul, India. Recently, Nepal Telecom, on behalf of the government, signed a contract with BSNL, Bangladesh Telecom Company Limited of Bangladesh and Bhutan Telecom of Bhutan for bilateral interconnection. The MoIC will implement the project and hand it over to Nepal Telecom for operation and maintenance as per the cabinet’s decision made last year. Out of the total bandwidth capacity of 10 Gbps, Nepal Telecom will be allowed to use 70 percent for commercial purposes or lease it to other service providers while the MoIC will provide the rest to internet service providers or telecom operators recommended by the government. “Commercial use of the fibre link is expected to start from early 2014,” said technical expert Surendra Lal Hada of the MoIC. The project is expected to bring down the cost of interconnection charges between Nepal, India, Bangladesh and Bhutan and provide better data and voice service at a lower price. After the completion of the project, traffic to and from third countries can be handled through India’s undersea optical fibre cable connection linking Singapore in the future. Nnnn LANDSLIPS TRIGGERED SETO FLASH FLOODS Kathmandu, 16 May;After 11 days of speculating about the cause of the Seti flash flood, a team including geologists has concluded that the tragedy was triggered by landslips, Lal Prasad Sharma writes in The Kathmandu Post from Pokhara,. The nine-member team of geologists and representatives of Trekking Agents Association of Nepal, Nepal Police, Nepal Army and local people has returned after studying the landslide site since May 9. The team has stated that a mass of soil and other particles deposited by old glaciers near the big glacier of Mt Annapurna IV pushed a hillock ranging in altitude from 4,200 meters to 4,500 meters, triggering a number of landslides. “It seems that a small avalanche opened a series of landslips, triggering the tragedy,” said a geology department faculty at Prithivi Narayan Campus, Pokhara. The team reasoned that the hillock fell as it could not withstand the pressure of snowfall and rain-soaked terrain. “Parts of the hillock still remain there, but it is not sure whether they will slip further,” said team coordinator Krishna KC. nnnn